AS WELL as the raw GCSE results, this year each school has been given a `value added' score by the Department for Education and Skills.

While GCSE results are a snapshot of the standard reached by pupils, the `value added' score is designed to indicate whether or not children are making adequate progress between the Key Stage tests taken by youngsters at 11, 14 and 16.

The scores in the M.E.N. tables show the progress between Key Stage Three and GCSE - the ages of 14 and 16.

A value added score of 100 indicates pupils are making average progress compared to those in similar secondary schools. Figures below 100 indicate less than average progress, and those above show a greater level of progress.

King David High School in Manchester notched up the highest value added score (107.1) of any state school in Greater Manchester.

And it's this figure that chair of governors Joshua Rowe says proves that the school is getting the best from its students.

Mr Rowe says the score highlights the school's real success - in stretching youngsters to their academic limit - and he says that matters more than the raw GCSE grades.

"The GCSE results are a marvellously huge tribute to the wonderful kids and wonderful teachers at the school, which we run like a grammar school and where we introduce the ethos of achievement," said Mr Rowe.

"But the real measure of a school is how it deals with the children who are not so bright. This value added score shows that we are stretching all our pupils to the maximum."

Not every school to be awarded a high value added score features near the top of the traditional league tables.

Abraham Moss High School, in Crumpsall, receives a value added score of 104.2 - one of the highest scores notched up by a school in Greater Manchester - even though just 32 per cent of youngsters reach the government benchmark of five or more A*-C grade GCSEs.

The school's headteacher David Watchorn said: "I am extremely pleased that the Key Stage Three to GCSE score is positive. And it does reflect our feeling that we have added value to youngsters and the enormous amount of work pupils and staff do for their GCSE courses.

"I think the problem with any performance indicator is that it is only one indicator. The danger is that people will believe that this is the `truth', whereas the truth is more complicated."